“Enough.”
“Such rudeness! Is that really the thanks I get, after everything I’ve done to keep your secrets hidden away? After all my years of being an accomplice in your charade?”
Charade?
What charade?
“I mean it, Ava. That’senough.”
There’s ice in Alden’s voice — the kind I’ve never heard from him before. My brows lift, curious what could possibly make him so angry. Behind me, I feel Carter shift from foot to foot, uneasy at the turn this conversation has taken. We’re both strangely on edge, eavesdropping on a conversation we were never intended to hear.
“Or what?” Ava goads.
Alden is silent.
“That’s what I thought.” She scoffs, a frigid sound. “I own you, big brother. Never forget it.”
The sound of Ava’s heels clicking away announces her departure from the terrace. In the heavy silence that follows, I think Alden must’ve left as well. I open my mouth to ask Carter if it’s all clear, but the words never make it past my lips. A pained roar splits the sky, ringing out like the tolling of a bell. A sound so full of anguish, it tears at my very soul.
Alden.
I actually flinch like I’ve been struck, nearly stumbling; Carter instantly steadies me, his arm tightening like corded steel. My thoughts are zinging in a zillion directions. Half-formed theories are warring with muddled facts, spinning round and round until I’m dizzy from the effort of keeping them all contained. I’ve never wanted answers about anything so badly.
What could possibly make Alden so upset?
What horrible secret is Ava holding over him?
Alden’s scream tapers off into a devastated sob that makes my eyes water with sympathy. I’m half-ready to step out from behind the column, to offer him whatever comfort I can — repercussions be damned — when another sound rocks the night.
Crash!
The water glass explodes in a shower of shards, hurled with brute force against a nearby wall. Carter automatically pulls me tighter, his hands coming up to protect my face, his shoulders broadening to shield my body. Thankfully, the marble pillar deflects the worst of the damage.
We huddle close together, barely breathing as we listen to the sound of Alden’s designer dress shoes retreating, the crunch of glass beneath his soles the only remnant of his sudden violence.
For a moment, neither of us moves. We are two intertwined statues, so still we might be carved from the same marble of the column protecting us from view. I take a deep gulp of air, letting the scent of him fill my lungs one last time, then pull away. This time, he lets me go without resistance.
We step out onto the empty terrace, stilted silence surrounding us like fog. Neither of us quite knows what to say to the other. My anger at him — for toying with both my emotions and my body, for tangling me up into a mess of desire only to cut me loose at the last moment — is strangely absent in the wake of all that we’ve just overheard.
Plans for a power coup.
A Sterling-Thorne wedding.
Siblings’ secrets and lies.
“Do you know what they were talking about?” I ask, unable to meet Carter’s eyes. I stare instead at the museum’s elaborate network of gardens, wondering whether anything grows this time of year, when the world seems utterly encased in ice. “Alden and Ava?”
Carter sighs. “No. But that’s par for the course with the Sterling family. They’ve always kept their cards rather close to the vest. Especially when it comes to the game of politics.”
“This didn’t seem like a political strategy, though.” I shake my head. “This seemed… personal.”
He steps up beside me, leaning back against the railing with deceptive casualness. We aren’t touching, but his proximity still makes me nervous. I don’t trust him. More, I don’t trust myself.
Every time his hands are on me, all my senses fail.
“What’s wrong, Emilia?” His half-grin is more smirk than smile. “Worried your future husband has secrets to hide?”
I stiffen. “He isn’t my future husband.”